Braun Strowman is out of the Universal Championship Match at the Royal Rumble.
This week’s episode of Raw featured an angle where Baron Corbin interrupted Strowman at the start of the show. It led to Strowman chasing Corbin, with Corbin running away. Corbin hid in Vince McMahon’s limo, Elias told Strowman where Corbin was, and Strowman destroyed one of the limo’s windows and doors.
McMahon said he was fining Strowman $100,000. Strowman told McMahon the limousine wasn’t even worth that much, and Vince punished Strowman by removing him from the Universal Championship Match against Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. Strowman then tipped over the limousine.
The widespread belief is that Strowman got removed from the match due to injury — that he’s still recovering from elbow surgery. According to Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com, Strowman is not being removed from the match due to injury. Rather, this was a creative decision that he’ll explain on tonight’s post-Raw episode of Wrestling Observer Radio.
Ahead of the angle on Raw, Dave Meltzer wrote about Strowman no longer being in the Universal Championship Match at the Royal Rumble: “It will be reported that it is due to an injury by others. It is not. It was always the plan and we’ll explain that on tonight’s show if it happens based on how it is explained.”
